New rules issued for contemplative women religious

Carol Glatz|
Catholic News Service

7/22/16

The Carmelite Sisters of Mount Carmel Convent in Nairobi, Kenya, ask their visitors from the United States to sign their guest book in this 2011 file photo. Pope Francis issued a series of new rulings dealing with formation, assets, prayer life, authority and autonomy of contemplative women.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, arrives for a news conference at the Vatican July 22. The news conference was held to release new rulings that Pope Francis has issued concerning contemplative women religious.

VATICAN CITY - In an effort to help contemplative women
religious renew their life and mission in the church and the
world, Pope Francis issued a series of new rulings dealing
with formation, assets, prayer life, authority and autonomy.

The new rulings include a mandate that "initially, all
monasteries are to be part of a federation" based on "an
affinity of spirit and traditions" with the aim of
facilitating formation and meeting needs through sharing
assets and exchanging members. Monasteries voting for an
exception from joining a federation will need Vatican
approval.

All institutes of contemplative women religious will need to
revise or update their constitutions or rules so as to
implement the new norms and have those changes approved by
the Holy See.

Titled "Vultum Dei Quaerere" (Seeking the face of God), the
document focuses on the life of contemplative women
religious. Dated June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul,
it was released by the Vatican July 22, the feast of St. Mary
Magdalene.

The 38-page document contains 14 new articles ruling on
various aspects of life within monasteries and their
jurisdiction, including a regulation outlining the criteria
needed for a monastery to retain juridical autonomy or else
be absorbed by another entity or face closure.

The Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life
and Societies of Apostolic Life is now charged with creating
a new instruction to replace what had been the current - but
now no longer in effect - "Verbi Sponsa" - the congregation's
1999 instruction on contemplative life and cloistered nuns.

Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the
congregation, told reporters July 22 that the new apostolic
constitution is meant to fill the legislative gaps that have
become apparent since Pope Pius XII's apostolic constitution
"Sponsa Christi," issued 66 years ago.

The bulk of the new document outlines 12 aspects of
consecrated life that call for "discernment and renewed
norms" in an effort to help contemplative women fulfill their
specific vocation and "essential elements of contemplative
life," the pope wrote.

The document also notes today's pervasive "digital culture"
and praises the potential of internet for formation and
communication. However, the pope calls for "prudent
discernment" in the use of new media so that they don't lead
women to "wasting time or escaping from the demands of
fraternal life in community" or become harmful to one's
vocation or an obstacle to contemplative life.

The pope praised contemplative women and expressed the
church's long-held esteem for men and women who chose to
follow Christ "more closely" by dedicating their lives to him
"with an undivided heart" and in a prophetic way.

Underlining how much the church and humanity need their
prayers, self-sacrifice and evangelizing witness, the pope
said it was not easy for today's world to understand their
"particular vocation and your hidden mission; and yet it
needs them immensely."

Like beacons of light, contemplative women are "torches to
guide men and women along their journey through the dark
night of time," pointing the way to the new dawn and the
truth and life of Christ, the pope said. They are "like Mary
Magdalene on Easter morning, announce to us: 'I have seen the
Lord!'" and Mary, the Mother of God, who contemplates the
mystery of God in order to see the world "with spiritual
eyes."

However, contemplative life can "meet with subtle
temptations" - the most dangerous being: listlessness,
falling into mere routine, lack of enthusiasm and hope, and
"paralyzing lethargy," he said.

To that end, the pope highlighted 12 aspects of contemplative
and monastic life that needed particular attention and
renewed norms for women: formation; prayer; the word of God;
the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation; fraternal
life in community; autonomy; federations; the cloister; work;
silence; media; and asceticism.

The document includes clearer regulations saying that
maintaining juridical autonomy will entail having "a certain,
even minimal, number of sisters, provided that the majority
are not elderly, the vitality needed to practice and spread
the charism, a real capacity to provide for formation and
governance, dignity and quality of liturgical, fraternal and
spiritual life, sign value and participation in life of the
local church, self-sufficiency and a suitably appointed
monastery building."

If a monastery falls short of the criteria, then the
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies
of Apostolic Life "will study the possibility of establishing
an ad hoc commission made up of the ordinary, the president
of the federation, a representative of the federation and the
abbess or prioress of the monastery." The commission's aim
will be to find ways to revitalize the monastery "or to
effect its closure."

Pope Francis repeats warnings he has made before in speeches
to consecrated men and women, against "the recruitment of
candidates from other countries solely for the sake of
ensuring the survival of a monastery."

Archbishop Rodriguez explained the church is "not closing its
doors" to its universal makeup, but that more thorough and
careful discernment must be made by superiors and candidates
in reflecting upon their reasons for entering monastic life.

The document, the archbishop said, also clearly states that
nuns charged with formation can receive continued formation
for themselves even outside the monastery, in a way that is
consistent with their charism. The importance of their own
formation cannot be sacrificed, he said, just because they
have been called to live a cloistered life.

The other major change, the archbishop said is contained in
article 10, in which each monastery is to ask the Holy See
"what form of cloister it wishes to embrace, whenever a
different form of cloister from the present one is called
for."

"Once one of the possible forms of cloister is chosen and
approved, each monastery will take care to comply with, and
live in accordance with, its demands," the document said.

Other mandatory norms each monastery will have to adhere to:
verify the centrality and place of prayer in daily life;
provide for "lectio divina" and eucharistic adoration; find
ways to involve the local church more; and provide "suitable
moments of silence."

The archbishop said no document on the life of contemplative
men's orders was in the works or being considered.

He said work on the constitution began two-and-a-half years
ago when the congregation sent out a questionnaire to every
monastery, about 4,000 around the world. The responses were
compiled and considered in the drafting process of the new
constitution, he said, and contemplative women were "greatly
listened to."

Like the number of religious men and women, the number of
contemplative women religious has declined the past decade
going from more than 48,000 women in 2000 to less than 39,000
in 2014, he said.

Europe remains the continent with the highest numbers of
contemplative women - more than 23,000, followed by the
Americas with more than 8,000.